Eliza and Her Monsters

This is easily my favorite book of the year. It is such an intense novel that sucks you in and does not let you go until the very last page. And oh, the heartache when it's over. I cannot begin to describe the heartache. I was already a huge fan of Francesca Zappia after reading her debut novel, Made You Up, but this book surely sealed the deal. I literally read it in one sitting, and we're talking about a 400+ page book here. It takes you on an intense emotional rollercoaster ride that leaves you breathing hard and feeling slightly nauseated. It deals with so many important themes like anxiety, paranoia, suicide, grief and much more. It sheds a light on the social issues pertaining to online friends, the internet, fandom and fan fiction. Every aspect of the book is well thought out and expressed with perfect clarity and depth. Eliza Mirk is an introvert. She has no "real" friends, and no "real" ambition. She is trying to get past her senior year so she can go to university and focus on her art. Eliza Mirk is also LadyConstellation, the creator, writer, and illustrator of the very successful webcomic Monstrous Sea. It started out as a hobby, but has quickly gained a massive amount of following that made her so well-off, she could actually pay her way through university using only her savings from the webcomic, and still have a lot left over. She has two "online" friends, who are the only ones who know her real identity, and help her manage things. One manages all the bots and spam and comments, and the other manages the supply and demand of the merchandise. Eliza's whole life revolves around this comic and keeping her fans happy. She religiously sticks to schedule making sure a page of her comic series goes up every Friday. She has always struggled with her self-confidence and self-esteem as Eliza, but finds herself as LadyConstellation. That is...until Wallace. Wallace is the new kid at school, and he sits next to Eliza. He is built very big, like a football player, but he is not an athlete. He is very quiet, in fact, he does not speak, but prefers to write or text everything he wants to say. As luck may have it, he is one of the biggest fans of Monstrous Sea and is actually one of the most well-known online fanfiction writers of the series. A friendship strikes, as they find comfort in each other's company, but Eliza finds she could not reveal to him her true identity, instead telling him that she draws fanart of the series. Through Monstrous Sea, Eliza can express herself and lose herself, escaping her reality. She gets so enraptured in her world that it takes physical force to get her out of it, to the point that she almost missed Christmas with her family as she sat in her room working on her art. Eliza's relationship with her family has always been strained. She has no relationship with her brothers, and she continuously pushes away her parents because they don't understand her and want her to be someone she simply cannot be. They don't know the extent of her online work and simply write it off as a hobby. They have no clue how much money she's made off of this hobby and admittedly, have never shown any interest to find out. I will say, her parents are quite exuberant and can be a bit much, but I also always got the impression that they did it out of love for her and are just trying to get closer to her. Even though they mess up badly, I couldn't help but feel bad for them, because they meant well. As Eliza's relationship with Wallace grows, she slowly starts to get out of her shell. She keeps pushing herself to try harder, to try new things, to go out there and see the world and meet people. In doing so, she begins to notice things about herself, her family, her brothers, and even Wallace, things that help her understand the "real" world around her. Eliza and Wallace really complemented each other, and they were so good together because neither one forced the other out of their shell. They accepted each other for who they were, with their flaws, and slowly were able to open up and let each other in. We learn more about Wallace to help us understand why he stopped speaking, and all the internal struggles and conflicts he goes through, which is very important and helpful to understand the sudden change in his character towards the end. When LadyConstellation's identity is revealed, Eliza's entire world is destroyed. This is a heartbreaking part of the story, the way it is told and described and expressed really puts you in that emotional hell that Eliza was going through. It really makes you live the experience alongside her. Wallace feels betrayed and angry, but the way he deals with it and the change in his character was shocking for me. I hated him. I honest to God hated him and could not believe he could turn so easily. However, when you sit and think, and remember what he's been through and how he dealt with that, I could slowly begin to understand why Zappia brought out that reaction in him. He's human. We're all human. And sometimes, that's our biggest weakness. As humans, we tend to be very selfish, and Wallace is by no means perfect. He didn't know how else to attack, how else to hurt, so he did it by being human, and only thinking of himself. I don't think he completely redeemed himself at the end. I really don't. I think Zappia might have slightly glossed over that part and had him let off easy. That being said, this was still an incredible book, with so many good messages conveyed. For a 400+ paged book, there was never a point in which I thought, this could have been cut down, or there's no need for this part, or this is too much description. Nope. Every sentence on every page was read, nothing was skimmed over, it all came together perfectly. That is what I loved most of all. It was a big book, but it wasn't big enough for me. I wanted it to keep going and lose myself in it the way Eliza lost herself in her Monstrous Sea world.

My heart has been wrung out. I woke up with my heart feeling so full and being in pain. I need to drown my sorrows in ice cream. Haagen Dazs Strawberry Cheesecake, preferably. Gosh, this was so relatable! Pretty sure you all know what this is about, but just in case you don't, it's about Eliza and her world. The Sea Monsters. The fandom she's created and chose to write anonymously about. Her art. Which in turn becomes her life. She's more active online than she is in the real world. She's more herself online, more at ease and anything outside of that bubble makes her uncomfortable, agitated and feel slightly overwhelmed. I mean, I related to this on a spiritual level. It did take me almost half-way to fully connect with it, but from then on, I was falling in love with it deeper and deeper. Page by page. Eliza is such a wonderful character. Her journey throughout all of this - which I'll leave out since YOU SHOULD GO AND DISCOVER IT AND READ IT - was intense, and agonising and healing to follow. I adored it! I understood her and I felt like I was uncovering parts of myself to myself. Whilst reading, there were moments of just intense connection. ‘Yes, I understand your anxiety. I know why you want to hide. I empathise with how you want to escape reality all the time and crawl into your safe space, because happiness resides there.’ It just felt all so enlightening. I smiled, laughed, teared up and felt the hurt through Zappia's words. The ending did feel slightly rushed. Or maybe I didn't want it to end and was craving for more, but I can absolutely see myself reading this again. When this pain heals that it.

I liked how quick and easy the book was to read, despite the quite heavy subject matter. I think this is a great step towards getting more people talking about anxiety and depression, particularly young people. SPOILER (SORT OF) My one concern is that the book reaches a climax in the form of Eliza's 'rock bottom' but then glosses over a few months to reach a more satisfying ending. However, I feel it represents anxiety and depression well as complicated and illogical. I also like that it explored the idea of Eliza as someone that 'shouldn't' have MH issues because her life is pretty ok from an outsider's perspective. So many sufferers deal with similar judgement. Overall, a good and arguably important read, especially for young adults.

I loved the whole fandom aspect of it... how the anonymity of being a creator and fan is separated from life... how you don't know that behind one of your fav fanfic or fan artists could be 16 or 60... that no matter how perfect your online life is, real life is a different story... I really enjoyed reading about Eliza, Wallace and how being a part of a fandom means to them, how they mean to each other too... great characters, amazing plot! I loved it!

An emotional and realistic story that I enjoyed, but I think the character development was lacking in the periphery characters. @crushingcinders Review copy received from publisher

Literally my favourite book, its just so important to me I will read this again the cover was beautiful and the story was great Sidenote: If you want to read the book don't read the blurb on the inside cover it basically says a spoiler for the ending of the book

Beautiful read! About friendship, family, and responsibility. PS: The author of this book is also the author of Children of Hypnos, a series important in this story, and publishes it through Wattpad.

I did not think I would have enjoyed a book like this but I was surprised with how much I liked it.

When we selected this book for our book club, I wasn’t sure our age group would relate to it we are in our mid 40s. The self awareness of the characters, and their vulnerability was refreshing. Regardless of genre you normally read I would recommend this book for all ages

Gustó mucho el libro

I actually loved this book! I really don’t rate books with 5 stars often. I think the only other times I rated 5 stars were Daughter of smoke and bone and HP number 4? I spare these stars for special books. And this one was a special book. I don’t think it’s for everybody. But I am in fandoms, I created a book, I love to draw stuff, I fit in the described world of the book. This book made me want to write and draw again everytime I read a page. It was motivating me. Besides that the characters seem realistic and the writing is done great! The book also has some drawing and linea from Monsterous sea, which I loved as an addition to the work. I remember a friend of mine recommending Fangirl to me because of my intereste and being a fangirl myself haha. I didn’t particularly like that book. It was okay, but I am not inclined to buy the book myself and re read it. This book was the better version of Fangirl.... by far! I will add this book to my favourites. It has all the feels in the right places, it just feel right. Were for me Fangirl felt ‘made’. The art used was also original and I would love to read her webcomic or Wallece’s transcription. Bring it on! The only teeny tiny minor thing that felt less good, were the last few chapters. This whole book you built towards the reveal, the high point of the cliff and it lures to taunts you. And when you get there there is a bang and it tapers off. He ending was slow. But it fitted, the book has a nice pace. And the ending fitted. The taunting was gone though, but I guess that’s normal after the tipping point. I will recommend it to anyone who is part of a fandom, who loves to create art and/or who loves reading webcomics like Carciphona by Shilin for example (go read it). If you’re not really into this world, this book is probably not that appealing to you. Keep reading and writing out there!

Narrativa com um ótimo ritmo, uma das melhores que eu já li do gênero YA. A epígrafe, um trecho de A Redoma de Vidro, simboliza muito bem a história.

Been waiting to buy it for so long. Love the storyline, plot, character development, the sketches and overall presentation! Will update after finishing the book!! Update: COMPLETED IT AND MY MIND IS BLOWN.... Awesome book...Definitely worth the hype... Just the thing needed for a good read.